@iulianc, why would it be any easier to stand out at Poly? All of them only accept top caliber students. I don’t think I’d count on that. It will take a supreme effort to rise from the mean in any of those programs.
My son is in a similar situation, but was fortunate to be accepted to UCLA in Electrical Engineering.
On a side note, it turns out that electrical engineering is not one of the most popular engineering majors these days - which probably helped him get it. Mechanical and CS are more popular and harder to get into. The interesting thing to me, a mechanical engineer, is that I have always considered electrical engineering the most difficult. Not just me. That has been the general consensus throughout my career. One of my friends jokes that mechanical engineering is “the science of the obvious.” But I digress.
There is something about just being at UCLA that awesome. I mean it’s UCLA! If he gets into Berkeley we will be even more torn.
I think Cal Poly makes more sense for my son. I suspect the UCLA wow factor would wear off in time, and what’s more important is the curriculum and the every day experience. But we are probably going to visit UCLA again -while school is in session this time. My son should at least get a UCLA sweatshirt for making it in.
SO REALLY, I’m hoping to hear a couple of reasons to choose Cal Poly over UCLA. @eyemgh, did I read you say that a professor at a big name school recommended CP over their school - or something like that?
A co-worker of mine has a son at UCLA in mechanical engineering, and her son said that at some TA lead study sessions, the questions were asked and answered in Chinese. My son doesn’t speak Chinese, so that sounds like a problem. (But I don’t know how common this is.)
And to be the devils advocate; Why do people think smaller classes are better? When I went to UCSB I didn’t care how big the classes were, and I didn’t care if other students were competitive with me. My competition was between myself and the questions on the test. And between me wanting to go have fun, and me having to study. On the other hand, if the questions on the test are much harder at UCLA, then I think that’s worse. I’m sure Cal Poly’s test questions are hard enough.
@babygroot, two Caltech professors told him not to apply there, because the undergraduate experience was so bad. My uncle, a Stanford PhD, said he’d be s better engineer of he went to CP than he would if he went to Stanford.
Cal Poly vs UCLA completely depends on perspective. For example, live for the city life, don’t pick CP. Hate traffic, don’t choose UCLA. As for the academics, you already answered your own question. He won’t encounter TAs with little motivation to teach and heavy accents at Cal Poly. They make VERY sparing use of TAs because they don’t have many candidates. They don’t have a doctoral program. On the other hand, if he wants to do research as an UG, UCLA is the better choice as there’s a lot more going on.
Thanks @eyemgh. Those are convincing examples.
(Also, my intention is not to bag on ME’s. I love mechanical engineering. I was just surprised to learn that EE is not as popular.)
@babygroot, I didn’t read any bad intent towards ME at all.
My son actually did a mechatronics concentration, so even though he’s a ME, he’s had lots of circuits, controls, and programming.
He did mention that getting classes can be more problematic for EEs than it has been for him as a ME. The department is smaller, so occasionally, a student will need a class, but it won’t be offered because there isn’t enough demand. I’d be sure to go to the department and specifically ask about that when you visit.
@eyemgh to answer your question, I think it is slightly harder to get into UCLA than into CPSLO, and it is my perception the types of people applying to UCLA tend to be more competitive. Not supported by any data, just my impression. If it were true, then the student population at UCLA would be a lot more competitive, which makes the college experience a bit unpleasant. I know a lot of kids that went to UW, where the admission until this year was mostly undeclared and entering into an engineering major was purely competitive after the GE classes were completed. Every kid I talked to told me that made the whole college experience relatively unpleasant. I know at UCLA admission is directly by major, but the whole competitiveness thing feels more likely to happen there than at CalPoly. I might be wrong though.
@iulianc, I think it certainly depends on the major, but there are a few examples every year of those who got into UCB and/or UCLA that were denied at Poly for the most competitive majors. What the experience would be like is a different story.
To suggest standing out from the crowd though sort of implies academic mediocrity among the competition. There isn’t much of that in any of those schools in the top programs. That’s the only concept I was pressing back against.
Regarding whether it is slightly harder to get into UCLA than CPLO; One big difference is the application. Most UCs claim to weigh “academics” versus “personal insight questions and activities” about equally - 50/50. The UC application includes 4 essay questions and a place to describe all your other activities and awards. Cal Poly just doesn’t have that much information about each student - basically GPA, classes, test scores, and four drop down box type answers regarding activities.
So Cal Poly students in the most popular majors have very high specs - maybe higher than UCLA - but I don’t know. I know that I was more worried about getting into Cal Poly than UCSB. ( I guess I should say “my son” getting into Cal Poly than UCLA.) I wasn’t expecting him to get into UCLA because his specs are good but not outstanding. He must have made it in because of his essays and activities.
So regarding caliber of student - it’s hard to say. They’ll both be high caliber. I think a bigger difference is a research versus practical curriculum. And I also agree that UCLA probably attracts a little bit different kind of person. It just depends on what you want. We chose CP over UCSB, and now CP over UCLA. If it happens, we’ll choose CP over UCB also.